Anime Hearts
by ContraBardus
Summary: A somewhat original story, using Kingdom Hearts premise and Anime characters.
1. Default Chapter

I could contain it no longer; it must end now.  
  
You had to know someone was going to do this sooner or later anyway. ^_^  
  
Anime Hearts.  
  
Another brilliant comedy by me.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
What kind of accent did you give me in your head when you read that first part? ^_^  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Sort of an English one? Southern drawl? Hillbilly? A used car salesman? A Northeastern accent? South central? New England perhaps? Hispanic? A dude? Maybe a snotty yuppie?   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
What about tone?  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Maybe a dry monotone? A crazed scream? An insane superior tone, or just a regular superior tone? Perhaps an angry snarling tone? Perhaps even a slight lisp?   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Well, I dunno about that last one, but...  
  
Anyway.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
The theme song.  
  
Simple and Clean [PLANITb Remix]  
  
Part 1.  
  
Complexities of life.   
  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"Falling."  
  
Carrot sighed as he looked around. He was falling headfirst and facing up away from the ground.   
  
"This dream again? Wonder if there's anything underneath me this time?" He twisted his neck and tried to jerk his body as he fell. It didn't do much to change his position, and he couldn't see what was below him. His loose brown shirt flapped in the wind as he fell. His pants were loose blue jeans that were flapping loudly as he fell as well. A silver chain hung in the air just above his neck with a medallion hanging from it. The medal was a medium sized dragonhead styled into an axe with two red gems for eyes. His brown hair waved wildly, he could feel the short ponytail brushing the back of his neck violently.  
  
"Probably another dark void. Man, this dream gets old sometimes."  
  
He was completely taken by surprise when he fell beneath the water in his dream and simply watched the bubbles for a moment. It lasted less than a second, and he found himself standing on a beach. He glanced around and saw something odd.  
  
His old friend Dan was standing in the water with his hand reached out to him. He had a confident smirk on his face as he stared him directly in his face. He was a large man of about twenty-three years old. He had black slicked back hair and cold blue eyes. He was wearing street clothes, blue jeans, a black leather jacket, and a plain white button up shirt.   
  
"Okay, this dream is definitely going in the wrong direction," commented Carrot as he stared at the boy. He was a healthy heterosexual boy of sixteen years himself, and he didn't really feel like exploring his feminine side in so graphic a nature. He stood up and smiled as a large wave rolled up behind Dan's back.   
  
He was going to start laughing, really he was, but the wave didn't stop with Dan. Carrot found himself swept underwater by the force of the water as it slammed into his body. He saw Dan glaring at him angrily under the water and smirked despite the water that had rushed up his nose. The pair floated up out of the water, and Carrot found himself able to stand in knee deep water. Dan stood beside him brushing the water out of his hair while giving him irritated glares.   
  
He wasn't paying much attention to that as another one of his friends was standing on the edge of the water laughing and pointing at them.  
  
Her name was Jennifer, but everyone called her Jenn. A cigarette hung from her fingers as she pointed at them and turned red with laughter. She was not dressed for the beach either. She wore her usual wardrobe of an ankle length skirt and a simple T-shirt. She was a skinny girl with long brown hair that hung to the middle of her back.   
  
"Why that dirty little. She didn't tell either of us!" Carrot grumbled under his breath.  
  
Dan flashed him an angry glare and uppercut him.  
  
Carrot sailed into the air and came down hard in the water. Rather than stop when he reached bottom, he continued to plummet downward, further and further into the darkness of the deep.   
  
"I'm gonna get him for that one," grumbled Carrot without thinking about the fact that he was dreaming still.  
  
He floated upright suddenly and realized that his feet had hit something solid. It felt like a floor, and he didn't seem to be underwater any longer. "What the?"  
  
As he looked around something seemed to float off the ground, shards of black began to float away from the ground below him and float away. A light shined up from the surface below him. As the shards floated away, a huge stained glass window appeared below him. "What the?"  
  
He didn't even notice the shards of black turn into birds as they flew away behind him. His eyes were fixed on the huge image below him. It was Kei, from the Dirty Pair. A wreath of mechanical looking weapons surrounded the giant image's torso. He looked up and glanced around at the nothing that surrounded him. "This is too weird."  
  
A voice called out to him, it was feminine, and he had heard it before, but he couldn't place it. "So much to do, so little time. Take your time. Don't be afraid, the door is still shut."  
  
He stared at it for a moment and stepped back as he realized that there was something else on the edge of the image. "What?" He turned his head and saw three things floating over simple stone pedestals, a sword, a shield, and a staff. The blade was a short sword, it the blade shined brightly in the light that shined above it. The shield was simple, a basic shield with a painted red surface. The staff was unassuming, nothing more than a wooden rod with a black orb on top. The orb had a faint orange light within it.  
  
He walked up to the sword and stared at it for a moment.   
  
"You must choose."  
  
Carrot spun around to look at the source of the voice.  
  
A lone woman with light blue hair was standing in front of him. She had two small dots on her forehead and long flowing robes covered her body.  
  
"Choose?"  
  
"Your power is great, but limited. Choose your skills now."  
  
"Um, Tsunami right?" said the boy with a nervous laugh as he scratched the back of his head. "Man, this dream is getting really weird," he muttered under his breath. Though, he admitted he'd be far from upset if the dream got a little dirty.  
  
ZOT!  
  
"Yeowch!"  
  
"Stop wasting time, you must choose! Hurry! My time grows short."  
  
"Jeezus lady!" cried Carrot fearfully as he stood smoking in front of the sword. "Alright!" He snatched the sword and glared at her. "Happy?"  
  
"You have chosen the power of the warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. Your path is set. Now you must choose again, choose, the power you will give up." She looked quite ominous as she said this.   
  
Carrot had no idea what that meant. He also didn't know you could feel pain in a dream. It kind of sucked. He merely rushed over to the pedestal furthest away from her and snatched up the staff. Tsunami spoke again. "The power of the mystic. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin. You give up this power. Is this the form you choose?"   
  
Carrot stared at her for a moment in confusion. "Yeah, sure."  
  
The staff vanished in a flash of light and Tsunami merely smiled at him softly. "Remember, you cannot be harmed by the darkness, so long as you remember that there is light, even in the darkest depths.   
  
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"  
  
Tsunami faded away and Carrot found himself staring at the empty place where she had once been.  
  
"Well shit."  
  
Carrot paused as the pedestals sank into the glass. "Uh oh." The glass under him shattered away and he fell deeper into the darkness. He landed on another great circle of glass and glanced around, he was standing somewhere different. This time he saw a gigantic image of the goddess Belldandy.  
  
He paused as he gripped the handle of his blade and noticed an odd black shadow moving across the floor towards him. "What the?" He backed away, but he was trapped on the edge, it slid underneath him and spread. Panicking he flailed his arms as he sank into the floor. It consumed him completely and he struggled.  
  
Finally, he opened his eyes and found himself lying on his back on yet another window. This time there was no face on the glass, but rather a large mosaic of hearts.  
  
On the other side of the image was a door that led to nothing. Carrot walked over to it and pulled on the handle. It was locked apparently. He frowned, it didn't go anywhere. He peered around the other side and saw the other side with no problem. "Great," he muttered as he kicked it. It popped open with a rather unpleasant ripping sound and Carrot looked around guiltily for a moment before he remembered he was alone.  
  
He stepped through the door and found himself standing inside his own apartment. He moved through the room and found he was the only one there. Without a word, he walked to the front door and opened it. Tsunami's voice spoke to him once again. "Your adventure begins in the dead of night. Your road won't be easy, but a rising sun awaits your journey's end." He looked back at the room again with a small frown on his face as he stepped forward. He looked more annoyed than anything else. "The day you will open the door is both far off and very near."  
  
He found himself walking onto another window; this time there was an image of Hikaru Shidou, of Magic Knight Rayearth. A bright light shined down from above him and he stared at it as it moved across the glass like a searchlight.   
  
He turned and stared up at the stairway that had appeared behind him for a moment before he shrugged his shoulders and continued forward. It floated in the air, and was made of simple stained glass. He couldn't see where it went and stepped over to it somewhat reluctantly. "How bad could it be?"  
  
As he neared it, he could see a great pillar, the sides were covered in stain glass windows, and as he expected there was another image in front of him when he finally reached the top. This time it was a picture of Pai, from 3x3 Eyes.   
  
Gripping the blade in his hand he started forward. "Okay, now what?" he muttered under his breath.  
  
"The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes; but don't be afraid, and don't forget..."   
  
He slowly turned to face the new noise in his environment. He almost dropped his sword at what he saw in front of him. "Fuck this!"  
  
His shadow seemed to crawl out of the ground. It became a giant black figure; easily forty feet tall loomed over him. It's arms had massive claws and its eyes glowed with a dark presence. It crossed its arms as it stared down at him. The thing didn't even closely resemble him any longer.  
  
Slowly, he backed away and swung the blade down reflexively. He held it at his side, with the point facing the floor to his right.   
  
The creature slammed its fist into the ground and he jumped away from the strike. Its hand went into the glass and spread into a pool of blackness. Smaller creatures seemed to rise out of the dark pool and bounce around inside it excitedly.   
  
Carrot backed away from the scene defensively as he frowned at his position. The larger creature swung its fist towards him and he had to rush to the side to avoid being hit. The smaller things swarmed around him suddenly and he jumped over three of them and into the middle of the back to avoid another slash of the large beast's claws.  
  
One of the creatures stared at him with its gigantic yellow eyes for a split second before slamming its head into his stomach.   
  
Carrot rolled across the ground from the blow and stood slowly while holding his stomach. He had felt that, there was something off about this dream. "Is it a dream?"  
  
The giant monster raised both hands into the air and a dark power formed between them.  
  
"Can I take that chance?" he said to himself as he eyed the smaller creatures for a split second. They were hanging back at the moment.  
  
Carrot shifted his stance and placed the shield on his back. There was a larger strap attached to it to allow it. He seemed to place the blade into a scabbard that wasn't there and waited with his free hand held over the blade almost as if he was holding it. His options were limited, he had no where to run, and all he could do is hope to hold it off until he could think of something better.  
  
Balls of power began to slam into the ground around him, but they missed him completely. The large monster didn't seem to be aiming at anything in particular yet.  
  
The smaller creatures swarmed forward and he jumped into them again. This time he lashed out with the sword in a wide arc. Three of them were thrown back, injured, but not beaten.   
  
"Damn!" he muttered as he rolled aside to avoid the large creature's claws as they slammed into the ground again. He growled angrily as more of the creatures started to rise out of the pool of darkness that had formed again.  
  
"No!" He rushed towards it and slashed the monster in the wrist, hoping to get it to remove its arm and stop creating more problems for him. It didn't seem to phase the creature as it continued to ignore him.   
  
Carrot growled in frustration as he hacked and slashed at the arm repeatedly. The monster continued to ignore him and pulled its arm out of the dark pool.   
  
The boy stepped back as he stared up at the monstrous being. It was looking at its arm. Suddenly, its eyes grew brighter as it glared down at him.  
  
"Oh man. I think I just pissed it off."  
  
He was blindsided by three of the smaller creatures while his attention was elsewhere. Carrot rolled with the blows and staggered to his feet painfully as he turned to stare them down.   
  
There were about eight of them now, he clenched the sword in his hand a little tighter and frowned. Charging forward he slashed down on one of the thing's head. His blade flew from his grip and sailed over his head impaling itself into the ground. The creature screamed in anguish and faded into a black puff of smoke. The boy was flat on his back from the force of his own blow and stared in dumbfounded shock as a glowing red heart shot into the sky from the remains. Small crystals littered the ground, along with a few green orbs of energy. He had no idea what either one was.  
  
"What the fuck is this?" he cried as he jumped too his feet and moved aside to avoid the creature's companions as they swarmed towards him again.  
  
He found himself standing over one of the green orbs of energy and noticed it roll into his foot. It seemed to shatter on contact with him and create a cloud of green mist that seemed to float around his body. He staggered back, expecting it to be some kind of attack.   
  
Instead, he felt refreshed; a small surge of power seemed to flow into his body. "This is a game?" It made sense in an odd sort of way. He stared up at the monster above him for a moment and smirked.  
  
The smaller creatures were moving towards him again, spreading out to surround him.  
  
Carrot narrowed his eyes as he saw his sword sticking up from the ground a short distance away.   
  
Running directly into the creatures he pushed into the air with his feet. Three of the things jumped into the air to meet him and he lashed out with his foot to kick the one in front of him out of the air. It sailed off the edge of the glass and into the darkness. One of the others missed him completely, and the last one was deflected with his hand as he pushed off its attacking head.  
  
Carrot hit the ground hard, back where he started. His entire arm throbbed with a quickly fading pain. "Damn, not such a good idea."  
  
The large beast decided to make its presence known again and swung its hands down at him. Carrot lay flat on his back as they passed over him; a huge gust of wind blew at his shirt as they passed inches above his nose.  
  
"Okay, new plan," he muttered as he scrambled to his feet to avoid the six remaining shadows.   
  
Slowly he backed away from them, finding himself on the edge of the platform. "Damn!"  
  
One of the smaller things jumped forward and he hit the ground and covered his head as it dove headfirst towards him. The hit would hurt like hell, but it was better than being thrown off.   
  
A loud clang met his ears and he blinked as he saw the thing land on its rear in front of him. It shook its head and seemed pretty dazed.  
  
"The shield!" he gasped as he slipped it off his back as he stood. He hooked it across his left arm and pulled it up to guard his torso.  
  
The massive beast swung its claws into him and he jumped. The thing swatted him out of the air easily and he rolled across the glass. The shield had prevented the claws from harming him, but not the force of impact. He groaned as he staggered to his feet. He had moved several feet, but the smaller things were still between him and the blade.   
  
He peered at them from the other side of the shield and narrowed his eyes. They slowly moved in around him and he waited for them this time.  
  
When the things were about three feet away, the larger creature was making another energy ball in the air and ignoring them. Dark flames floated down around him and burned for a moment on the ground as the larger one released the attack.   
  
Carrot ignored this and charged forward with the shield in front of him. Three of the creatures were bowled over as he passed right through them. He rolled and slid as if stealing a base as the large thing slammed its hand into the ground again. His hand reached out and grasped the hilt of the blade. Unfortunately, his momentum did not stop. "Oh shit!"  
  
Carrot grasped the blade desperately; the shield on his other arm complicated matters as he clung to the handle with both hands despite it. The blade had sunk in deep, and it seemed to be holding. The side of the giant pillar was incredibly slick. He kicked his feet as he tried to find something to pull himself up with below him.   
  
He strained painfully as four more of the small creatures began to form directly in front of him. The large monster ignored his predicament, but the smaller ones were moving in quickly.  
  
"FUCK!" he grunted as they started to become uncomfortably close. He was straining with all his strength just to hold on to the blade.  
  
One of the things jumped for him and he screamed in angry pain as he kicked one of his legs with all his might. He managed to hook it over the ledge just in time to take a strike to the gut. He rolled onto his side and felt nothing holding his left shoulder up from the force of the blow he'd been given. Gasping for breath he panted painfully as more of them jumped to attack him. His eyes went wide as he saw two more diving straight for him. Quickly, he rolled away and jumped to his feet.  
  
He wasn't in good shape and he knew it. He was having trouble standing on his right leg, and one of his eyes was squinted shut. "What am I going to do now?" He was fighting a losing battle, he knew he was probably doomed. "Well, lets see how many I can take with me?" His voice calmed remarkably as he assessed the situation carefully. "That's it!" he cried out loud as he focused his attention on the large swarm of smaller shadows. There were around a dozen of them now, and they were all itching to attack again.   
  
Their attack pattern was strange, they seemed to be hanging back somewhat. Then they'd rush forward in coordinated attacks.   
  
Carrot was alone; he had to worry about the big one as well. That didn't leave much room for tactics. He glared up at the giant as it thrust its hand into the ground again. "Just keep making those things ugly."  
  
The boy rushed forward with an animalistic battle cry. He slashed with the blade and sent the smaller things flying away. He used wide low slices to fight them and it proved effective. They were forced away from him and allowed a little breathing room. They quickly grew more cautious and he was forced to spin constantly to keep them from attacking from behind. One of them dove with its head again, jumping straight at him.   
  
Carrot slashed again and the thing's head met with his blade. The weapon and the monster flew apart, but neither party seemed injured. "Okay. I can parry, that's nice to know." His condition hadn't grown worse, but it also hadn't gotten any better. He frowned and eyed a small group of the things that had congregated to his left.   
  
The giant decided to put its two cents in as well as it started lashing with its claws once again.  
  
Carrot jumped into the air and slashed downward at the thing's wrist as it passed under him. He rolled as he hit the ground and jabbed forward, stabbing one of the creatures in the chest. It vaporized as the heart shot into the sky again. As before, a small shower of crystals and energy was scattered across the ground. Carrot ran around the area, slashing with his sword as he absorbed them.  
  
His eye was better, and he wasn't hurting nearly as badly. "All right." He turned slowly to face the pack of monsters and frowned. "Who's next?"  
  
This time they reacted in a swarm.   
  
"Oh man," whined Carrot as he was forced to move through them. He tagged a few more as he did this and kept them at bay. Another one of the creatures exploded and he rushed over to collect the energy once again. The crystals vanished as well as he passed over them, but they didn't seem to make him feel any different.   
  
The large monster thrust its hand into the ground again.  
  
"Stop that you asshole!" screamed Carrot as he rushed up to it and began to hack at the arm again. The blade was becoming a little easier to use now. He was growing accustomed to the weight and feel of it slowly but surely.   
  
He stepped back as it pulled its arm up. Stepping back across a shower of crystals and power as one of the smaller creatures that had grown caught in one of his swings exploded.   
  
He glanced around himself and backed up. There were close to thirty of the small things around him now. They jumped and stared at him excitedly as they began to move in.  
  
Carrot stared up at the dark creature above him as it raised its hands into the air a final time. Its eyes grew brighter as a dark storm cloud formed over its head.   
  
"Oh shit," muttered Carrot as the thing's arms slammed into the ground on either side of him. He struggled as his feet slowly began to sink into the blackness below him. "No! No fair!" He turned to slash at one of the arms nearby, but the beast merely ignored him as he sank every deeper.  
  
Carrot's struggles grew more frantic as he struggled against the force pulling him downward. His neck and arms began to sink below when a voice rang out inside his head. It was Tsunami again.  
  
"Don't be afraid, for you hold the mightiest weapon of all. Always remember..."  
  
The boy stared at the sky as long as he could; his face was becoming enveloped as well. He didn't seem to care much about the voice at the moment.  
  
"You are the one, who will open the door."  
  
Carrot blinked despite his struggles. "What the hell is that supposed to mean!?" The voice did not answer, as he became swallowed by darkness.  
  
His eyes went wide at what he saw before he vanished into the pool of darkness completely. It was the bottom of a white Kimono standing in front of him. A woman, her face shrouded in shadows as she slowly drew a blade from her side and plunged it into the darkness that was swallowing him up. She seemed to be smiling.  
  
Then, everything went black.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Carrot sat up and stared forward.  
  
"What the hell are you doing sleeping out here?"  
  
He blinked and looked up to see Jenn staring at him irritably. "Having a really weird dream."  
  
He glanced around and found himself sitting in the back yard of a small apartment building. It was no more than a twenty-foot square area with a few clotheslines hanging across it. In fact, it was his home, Jennifer stayed a few doors down from him, with Dan living on the second floor. He lived on the second floor of the three-story building.  
  
"Don't you have something you're supposed to be doing?" she snorted as she lit a cigarette and sat down on the back porch of the building. It was a raised wooden platform with a sliding glass door that went into the building.   
  
"Huh? Not really." He scratched his head in confusion and frowned.   
  
"Carrot! What the hell are you doing!?" screamed a familiar voice from above them.  
  
He looked up and began to sweat nervously. "I fell asleep?"  
  
The woman looking down on them sighed and rolled her eyes as she leaned out of the window. She was an Asian woman of about his age. Her long dark hair was tied back in a ponytail. She was wearing a turtleneck shirt and glared down at him irritably. "You're supposed to be fixing that porch!"  
  
The man sighed as he looked at the hammer and nails that were strewn across the ground beside him. "Oh yeah." He stood up and stretched his back. "Don't worry about it, I just took a little nap that's all." He seemed somewhat irritated by the two women bothering him.  
  
A tennis shoe slammed into his forehead and sent him back to the ground. "So get to work!"  
  
"Ouch!" he cried as he sat up again. "Why you..."  
  
"Heh. Mia is pissed," said Jenn as she blew out a cloud of smoke and grinned at him.  
  
"Shut up," he grumbled as he picked up the hammer and stared at the loose boards. It probably wouldn't take him very long to replace them. "I got all day to do this."  
  
"Don't you mean you're trying to make this last all day?" asked Jenn cheerfully.  
  
"Well, that too," he admitted as he laughed nervously.  
  
The door opened and Dan walked out and put a pair of dark sunglasses on over his eyes as he squinted into the sun for a moment. "Gah. Daylight."  
  
"Hey," said Carrot as he waved at him cheerfully.  
  
"Makin you fix the porch?" he asked as he noticed the pair.  
  
"Um, yeah," said the man in reply. "Finally finish?"  
  
"Yeah," replied Dan with a small shrug.   
  
Carrot shook his head and sighed. Dan had discovered that Doom 3 would be released, and had taken it upon himself to go through every single Doom game using a single life. "Guess you'll have to find something else to do. Didn't think you'd manage it this fast."  
  
The man merely nodded and glanced around the yard.   
  
"PC's free," said Dan as he looked down at Jenn.   
  
"Great!" said the girl as she jumped to her feet and smiled warmly as she rushed by him and into the building.   
  
Between the three of them, they had every major game system on the market. Dan had a rather high end PC in his room that was used exclusively for gaming. There wasn't much else to do in the area for fun. Save a bar they all frequented, and their low-income jobs at 'Burger Thing'.  
  
"How's it goin?" asked Dan as he sat down next to Carrot and looked at the old porch.  
  
"Just started," he replied with a heavy sigh. "Shouldn't take long though."  
  
"Too bad," said Dan with a small shrug.  
  
Carrot merely stared at it irritably. "Yeah. Who knows what else she'll want me to do today?"  
  
"Carrot! Quit stalling and get back to work! I've got a whole list of things that need to be done!" cried Mia from overhead.  
  
"Of course Muffin," grumbled the man irritably as he clenched the hammer a little tighter.  
  
"You married her," said Dan as he walked by with his hands in his pockets.  
  
"I was drunk," grumbled Carrot irritably.  
  
"Not as much as you'd like to think," replied his friend calmly. "I'm goin for a beer. Meet me later, if you can escape."  
  
"Right," replied Carrot halfheartedly.  
  
Dan walked around the side of the building towards the front and went towards the local bar. It was only about a block away.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Carrot knelt over the wooden porch and hooked the nail remover end of his hammer under one of the old nails. It came up rather easily and he fell flat on his rear as he pulled it out. "Son of a..." he muttered irritably as he pushed himself back forward and pulled the board up. There were several more he had to replace, but the job was mostly done now. There were several new boards behind him as he worked on the small wooden platform.   
  
He placed a new one over the hole and paused. He blinked and pulled it back up before placing any nails in it. "What the?" He stared down underneath the platform for a moment and noticed something odd. There was a large hole in the ground underneath it. He stood up and stepped back for a moment. It looked big enough for a human to crawl into it, and it was angled slightly downward.  
  
"Wonder where it goes?" he muttered as he dusted his hands off on his pants and walked towards the glass doors.  
  
He was stopped cold as Mia stood glaring at him from the doorway. "What are you doing? Quit screwing around."  
  
He blinked and smiled at her cheerfully. "There's a hole in the ground. I'm gonna go get a flashlight and check it out before I cover it."  
  
The woman stared at him for a moment in confusion. "What?" She was wearing a simple apron over her jeans and tossed a rag onto a nearby end table.  
  
"Shouldn't take long, I'm just curious," he replied as he walked up the stairs towards their apartment.   
  
"Well..." started Mia as she followed after him. She wasn't sure what to make of what was going on. "A hole?"  
  
"Yeah, a big one," he replied as he opened the door to their apartment and started rooting through a small end table's drawer. He came up with a small metal flashlight and grinned at her. "Probably goes to some pipes or something I guess."  
  
"That sounds dangerous," commented the woman as she frowned at him.  
  
"I guess it would be," he replied simply as he walked out the door. "Seems weird for someone to not have filled it in though."  
  
"I guess I should call my uncle about it," muttered the woman with a slightly worried frown. She managed the apartment for the man, as a result, her and her husband were allowed to live in one of the rooms without worrying about rent. Several of the boy's friends had decided to tag along, as it was a rather old building, and the rent was cheap.   
  
Carrot walked out into the hallway again and waved to a man who was sitting behind a computer terminal in one of the rooms with the door open. He was a rather nerdy looking man with short cut blonde hair. He had on thick glasses and had a dark spot in his hair just above his forehead.   
  
"Hey Phil," said the man as he walked by.  
  
There was little reaction to his passing as the man continued to stare at the screen in front of him. There was a lot of electronic equipment scattered about the room along the walls and on the floor.   
  
Mia looked at the man and frowned, making a disgusted sounding snort as she closed the door. "Maybe we should just call somebody about it? It could be some sort of..."  
  
"It's probably just some sort of maintenance that got done, and the contractor just got lazy because there was a deck over it. I just wanna check it out. We should be able to find out who we need to call."  
  
The woman nodded and stayed behind her husband. "All right, just be careful."  
  
Carrot walked out the door while looking over his shoulder. He had a dumb grin on his face as he strolled out across the wooden deck. "Don't worry about it. I'll be..." He stopped talking and looked down as a cracking sound started at his feet. "Aw man..." He dropped through the boards like a rock.  
  
"Carrot!" cried the woman as she rushed out onto the deck. She knelt down beside the hole and screamed into it. "Are you all right?"  
  
"I'm fine," he replied as he picked himself up and shined the light up into her face.  
  
She recoiled away and he shifted it away from her face. "Sorry."  
  
"Get back here you idiot!" she snapped irritably.  
  
"Well, I'm already down here," he replied as he peered into the darkness around him. "Hey, this place is pretty big." He strolled forward a little moving out of sight.   
  
"Carrot! Get back here!" snapped the woman as she became even more upset with him.  
  
"This isn't good," he called back.  
  
"Now what?"  
  
"There's some sort of cave down here."  
  
This gave the woman pause. "What?"  
  
"It's a cave of some kind. Looks like they built the place on top of it. Can't be safe to have this big hole under our building."  
  
Mia started climbing down the hole. "You'd better be kidding, or you'll be shoving concrete down here for months..." Her voice trailed off as she reached the bottom and looked around.  
  
She could see her husband standing there looking around in the middle of the darkness. While the room was mostly pitch black, his erratic movement of the light showed that the cavern was definitely more than she could afford to fill in. "Holy..."  
  
"Yeah. Kinda cool isn't it," he said as he grinned back at her.  
  
"You idiot! Do you have any idea how bad this is?" she cried as she latched her hands around his neck. "This can't be more than five or six feet under the building!"  
  
"Calm down," he said as he gently pulled her off. "Hey. What's that?"  
  
"Stop looking around! Who knows what you'll find!"  
  
He ignored her panic and walked towards something his light had found. "A...door?"  
  
Mia blinked and stared at him. "What?"  
  
"There's a door here. No handle on it though."  
  
She was at his side and glaring at the wooden door in an instant. "Great. So somebody put this here."  
  
"Got no clue," he replied. "Looks like it's been here a long time though." He blew on the side and a cloud of dust rose into the air.  
  
"Carrot. I don't like this," muttered the woman as she suddenly felt chilly. "I'm getting a bad feeling."  
  
Carrot was feeling unusually adventurous. "Nah. Looks fine to me. Nothing to be scared of anyway. Wonder where it goes?"  
  
"Another world..."  
  
"Eh?" muttered the man as he looked at his wife dumbly.  
  
"Nothing," she muttered as she backed away.  
  
"Well, I don't see a handle, and I think we should know," he handed her the flashlight.  
  
"What? What the hell are you doing?"  
  
He rushed by her and slammed his shoulder into the door. Of course, it did nothing but cause huge amounts of pain in his shoulder. "YEOUCH!"  
  
"I don't think we're going to get it open." She wasn't sure why, but she found herself greatly relieved by this. The door seemed to create a bad feeling inside of her, something she couldn't explain. It was almost like she was angry at it, but had no idea why.  
  
Carrot frowned at the old wood and rubbed his shoulder. "I'm gonna open that damn door."  
  
Mia said nothing and found herself nodding. "I think we should leave."  
  
Carrot scratched his head and shrugged. "Whatever. It's getting late. I should probably put something up around that hole though."  
  
"What? You're going to finish that porch!" snapped the woman irritably.  
  
"It's too late, it'll be dark by the time I get started again."  
  
Mia growled, but relented.   
  
"I'll get it tomorrow. I work the late shift, so I should have all day."  
  
"If you don't waste time all day like you did today!" She elbowed him in his gut as she passed by.  
  
"Hey, I helped out didn't I?" he muttered lamely.  
  
"We only get to stay here if things like this get taken care of Carrot."  
  
"Yeah, yeah," grumbled the boy irritably. He seriously doubted if the old man really cared.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Far away...  
  
It was a great hall, shadowy figures stood around a great symbol in the floor. It was a heart stylized into a crest and the dim light shining down on it was all the light the room had in it.  
  
There were around eight figures standing around it conversing. "We must act quickly. The Key has chosen its master. Tsunami's power was not sealed properly." The figure was not human and a long thick tail waved behind its legs as it stood with its arms crossed.  
  
"Her world has not yet fallen to the darkness," replied a male voice. It dripped with cultured evil. "It is difficult to contain the power of a goddess."  
  
"I had no problems," replied a nearby woman.  
  
"You have more experience dealing with such power," replied another of the figures. Two large wings silhouetted his body as he moved them in an irritated manner. "You should have let me deal with it."  
  
"Enough," snapped a rather calm sounding male. He looked human, if not for the glowing red irises that lit his eyes. "We'll deal with the problem soon enough. Still, this one should pose no problem. He is weak, a mere human. What possible chance does he stand against us?"  
  
"Don't underestimate the power of the light," responded a calm sounding voice from the other side of the group. He stepped forward into the light. He was wearing a rather ornate set of armor. His shoulders were stylized into dragons, and his long blonde hair hung down his back. "It can be very strong, and dangerous."  
  
"Still, we should deal with this now," said the inhuman shadow. "Best not let the weeds take root."  
  
"We'll see," said the calm shadow as he chuckled. "Perhaps they could be made to be of use to us?"  
  
"We shouldn't play with them," warned the armored man as he narrowed his eyes at the shadow dangerously. "Not when we are so close to our goals."  
  
"Bah," replied the inhuman shadow as he turned away and left the group. "Toying with one's prey is the only pleasure one as strong as I can have in life."  
  
"The problem should take care of itself, the Heartless fear the power of the key. They will seek to destroy it, or it's wielder if at all possible," replied the cultured sounding shadow. "Let them deal with it, for now."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Carrot stood at the bar with Dan at his side. Both of them had a beer in their grip as they simply stared forward wordlessly.  
  
Jenn was off in the corner playing on a rather large flight simulator video game. There was a small crowd around her as she played the game as usual.   
  
"So, you found some kind of door under the building?" asked Dan as he looked at Carrot in a somewhat thoughtful manner.  
  
"Yeah, I couldn't get it open though. There's no handle," replied the other man as he shrugged.  
  
"I might have something that could do it," replied Dan with a small shrug.  
  
Carrot frowned at him. "I'd like to get it open without bringing the building down on top of me. I'm thinking that maybe there's a lock hidden somewhere else in the cave."  
  
"Could be," replied the other man as he took a gulp of his beer.   
  
"Man, I gotta work tomorrow," grumbled Carrot as he hung his head. "Now I've got to fix those stupid boards too."  
  
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm off tomorrow."  
  
Carrot glared at Dan irritably. "Yeah. Gee thanks."  
  
The man continued to speak ignoring his friend's annoyance. "I'd help you out and all, but I'm actually paying rent. It wouldn't be very fair if I did."  
  
He almost seemed surprised when he was slugged across his jaw. Carrot loomed over him as he lay flat on his back on the bar room floor.  
  
Jenn turned to face the noise allowing her airplane to crash into a mountain as she did so. "Huh? Oh man, again?"  
  
"Take it outside you two," said the bartender firmly.  
  
Carrot and Dan calmly walked towards the front door. Neither looked particularly upset, in fact, they almost looked cheerful.  
  
"After you!" said Carrot as he opened the door.  
  
Dan shrugged and walked outside. Carrot promptly kicked him in the rear and sent him stumbling through the door.  
  
"Idiots," grumbled Jenn as she went back to the next life in her game. Everyone in the bar remained where they were, no one appeared to be even slightly interested in the fight.  
  
"Gets old after a while," commented one of the men standing near to the arcade machines. He was looking at a newcomer, who seemed confused at the lack of reaction within the crowd.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Carrot stumbled into his room a few hours later, he was beaten and tired. A large red mark was covering his cheek.   
  
Mia frowned at him as she sat at the table near the kitchen. "Rough night?"  
  
"Same as always."  
  
"You won?" she asked as she sipped at a cup of tea.  
  
"I always win," he replied calmly. "Dan sucks at fighting. Well, unless he's got a gun or something."  
  
"If he could fight you with one without killing you, he would," replied Mia as she flipped the page on the magazine in front of her.  
  
"Whatever, I'm goin ta bed," muttered Carrot as he started walking towards their bedroom.  
  
"Don't forget to set the alarm. You know what'll happen if I have to wake you up."  
  
The man stopped in the doorway and shuddered slightly. "I'll get up, don't worry."  
  
"I'd better not catch you napping tomorrow unless that porch is fixed."  
  
He cringed again. "Damn."  
  
"What was that?" she asked in a slightly amused tone.  
  
"Nuthin."  
  
"Good."  
  
Mia shivered slightly as she watched her husband go into his room. Outside it was summertime, but she could feel a strange chill in the air. "Something isn't right." She stood up and looked out the window. The moon was full, and the sky was clear, but there was something missing in the night sky, something she couldn't place her finger on.  
  
Her eyes went wide as she stared into the endless sea of black. A light flickered out and died, a single star faded into nothing. "What?"  
  
A noise from behind her startled her and she turned, half expecting to find her husband standing there. There was nothing though, nothing but an empty room of shadows.  
  
"A star has faded."  
  
"Who's there?" she said fearfully as she backed towards the window.   
  
"A world has fallen into darkness..."  
  
"Carrot, this isn't funny," she spat.  
  
"Will you fall into darkness as well, or will it consume you?"  
  
"What?" her eyes went wide as she stepped forward towards the voice. It was masculine and deep, but oddly quiet.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Carrot sat up in bed and rubbed at his eyes. "What the?" He was groggy and still half-asleep. "What time is it?" He turned to look at the clock and frowned as he noticed the late hour. "Hey..." He reached behind him to touch his wife and see if she was still sleeping. He touched only empty sheets.   
  
His first reaction was surprise, he blinked and looked at her empty pillow. "Mia?" He stood up and staggered out of the room. He was still dressed, and his shoes lay at the foot of the bed. He ignored them and walked out into the living room. "Hey. You fall asleep out here or somethin?" He wandered through the home and found only empty rooms. "Great."  
  
With a heavy sigh, he wandered back into his bedroom and put on his shoes. "Where the hell did she go at this time of night?" His first thought was Jenn's room. He'd check there next, there weren't a whole lot of places he could think of.  
  
Scratching his head and his crotch at the same time, he walked out of the room again and paused when he entered the living room. Mia was standing in front of the open window.   
  
He blinked and grinned as he stepped towards her. "Hey. Where ya been? I woke up and you..."  
  
"Carrot," she said simply as she turned to look at him. It was an odd expression on her face, one he didn't recognize.  
  
"Huh? What's up?"  
  
"Come with me."  
  
"Okay."  
  
She reached out her hand to him and smiled, it was cold and empty though.  
  
"Am I in some sort of trouble?" he asked nervously.  
  
"No. I just want you to go with me."  
  
"It's four in the morning."  
  
"The sooner we go, the better."  
  
Carrot was tired, and he wasn't really in the mood for this. "Where are we going? I've got to work tomorrow."  
  
"Don't worry about that anymore. Just come with me."  
  
"This is kinda freaky. Where are we goin?"  
  
"Come," she insisted patiently.  
  
"Where?" insisted her husband sleepily.  
  
"Onto the darkness of course, you don't need to be afraid. If you do not fear it, the darkness cannot hurt you."  
  
Carrot stared at her for a long moment. "Great. Another one of these weird darkness dreams. Maybe I should cut back on eating before bed a little?"  
  
She reached out and touched his arm gently, pulling him towards the window.   
  
"Why don't we take the stairs?" he asked calmly as he glared at her. "I'm getting a little tired of all that falling crap."  
  
Carrot jerked his arm out of her grip as she moved closer to the window. "Hey. What are you doing?" he said as he noticed her lift her foot over the ledge and step onto the roof.  
  
"Come through the door with me."  
  
"Hey!" he cried as he rushed forward to grab her as she neared the edge. A sudden gust of wind shot through the open window and tossed his entire body into the air. Mia fell back off the edge of the roof as he was thrown into the hallway through the front door. He hit the wall hard and cried out in pain as he slumped down against the ground. Splinters of wood surrounded him as he lay still for a moment. He staggered to his feet and steadied himself on the wall. "What's going on?"   
  
A small tickle started on his forehead and he squinted his eyes as he reached up to touch it. His fingers became sticky and wet as he recoiled away in pain. "I'm bleeding?" He stared at the window opposite him and took a slow step forward. "Mia?"  
  
His steps became more urgent as he rushed forward, remembering what had happened. "Mia!" He leaned out the window and tumbled onto the edge of the roof clumsily. Reaching the edge he slid to a stop and was barely able to keep from tumbling off the sides with his palms. "Oh shit."  
  
He could see the porch below him, and the violet light from within the hole underneath. "Oh man..."  
  
He staggered back into his room and rolled onto the floor after tumbling back through the window. He still didn't have his bearings straight. "What the hell is going on?" He walked out into the hallway and blinked as he noticed both Dan and Jenn standing in front of him.   
  
Dan had a handgun pointed at his head, and Jenn was simply cowering behind the larger man.   
  
"Watch where you're pointing that damn thing!" cried Carrot as he realized his position.   
  
"What's going on?" asked Dan as he noticed the door. "You two fighting again?"  
  
"I'm not sure," said Carrot honestly. "Look, it's been a really weird night, and I've got to go find Mia."  
  
"Where's Mia?" asked Jenn with a very worried frown.   
  
"I think she went into that hole in the back yard," replied Carrot simply.  
  
"What the hell are you talking about?" said Jenn.  
  
Carrot paused and cocked his head. "Shhhh."  
  
Dan didn't look particularly happy with what was going on. "Look..."  
  
The man put his finger up to Dan's lips and scanned the hallway behind them while ignoring the pair's confused frowns.   
  
"What are you looking for?" asked Jenn.  
  
Carrot stepped back slowly, backing away as he watched the hallway in front of them carefully.   
  
Jenn noticed the two yellow orbs staring back at them first. "Carrot..." she squeaked nervously as she clutched his arm.  
  
"I think we should go," replied the man as he continued to step back.  
  
"What the hell is that thing?" asked Dan as he leveled his handgun on it.   
  
"Well..." said Carrot with a nervous laugh. "Um, we should leave."  
  
Dan was about to unload a clip or two into the thing when he realized exactly what his friend was talking about. He could see dozens of things moving about in the darkness in front of them. There was no clear definition, just spots of black almost like puddles moving across the ceilings, walls, and floors. "I think you're right."  
  
Carrot spun around and rushed towards the stairs. He turned to move down them and staggered through the darkness with his two friends as fast as he could. When they reached the bottom, he stopped suddenly and stumbled forward.  
  
"Carrot?" asked Jenn as she reached out to help him up.   
  
The boy was holding his side as if he'd been struck. "Ouch." He turned to look at her and his eyes went wide. He reached forward and cried out to her. "Look out!"  
  
Jenn screamed as two of the large yellow orbs appeared out of the wall beside her, one of the thing's head was inches away from her face. She opened her mouth to scream, but any sound was drowned out by a loud report.   
  
Black ooze splattered the wall as the thing seemed to explode.  
  
Carrot and Jenn both turned to look at Dan as he calmly lowered his smoking handgun. "Get moving."  
  
"Where are they coming from?" said Jenn in a panic as she noticed more down the hall.   
  
"I think he knows," replied Dan as he turned to look at Carrot.  
  
The man was staring out the glass window, his face lit by a pale violet light. "Yeah. I know."  
  
"What the hell is that?" cried Jenn as she moved up to his side.  
  
Where the wooden porch had once been, was now nothing more than a vortex of black and purple.   
  
"The door," replied Carrot.  
  
"Door?" asked Dan.  
  
A geyser of ooze shot from the center and into the sky. The trio was thrown to the ground as the building shook violently. The glass doors in front of them shattered and the walls cracked as the force tore through the building.   
  
Finally it stopped.  
  
Carrot found himself standing up in a pile of rubble. All around him was a giant wall of rubble that had once been his home. He looked up at the night sky as Jenn and Dan stood up beside him. The only undisturbed area of the building was the small portion of floor they all now stood on.  
  
"What the hell is that?" cried Jenn as she noticed what Carrot was looking at.  
  
Above them was a gigantic orb of black and red. Power crackled across it as it seemed to suck in the very sky from above them.  
  
"It is the darkness," replied a familiar voice.  
  
Carrot spun around to see his wife standing calmly in the middle of the vortex of ooze that churned in front of where they were standing. "Mia?"  
  
"Come with me, it is the only way to save yourself. You must accept the darkness."  
  
"The hell!" he cried angrily. "Come over here! Get out of that stuff before..."  
  
"I see," she replied with a small sad frown.  
  
"Mia?" he muttered as he stepped towards her once.  
  
"You will not come with me? You will not pass through the door? To your destiny?"  
  
"What?" he said in confusion. "What the hell are you talking about."  
  
"That doesn't sound much like Mia," said Jenn quietly.  
  
Carrot turned to look at her with a shocked expression on his face. "But, it's her..." He looked at her again and stepped back. "It is her. I know it is..."  
  
"Carrot," said Dan carefully. It was obvious neither of them wanted to get any closer, even if it was to pull him back away from her.  
  
"Stop talking crazy and get away from that thing before you get hurt."  
  
"If you do not come with me, you are the one who will suffer. I offer one last time."  
  
Carrot snarled angrily as he rushed forward suddenly. "The hell! You'll thank me after we figure this mess out!" He grabbed her arm and pulled at her ignoring the sludge that was now knee deep around him. He struggled to move back, but his feet found no purchase to move back out of the ooze.   
  
Carrot looked at her with horrified eyes as she smiled at him. "At least we will be together..."  
  
"No!" he cried as he struggled against the slime that crawled up his body. It lashed up as if it was ropes and wrapped itself around his body. "I can't..."  
  
"Carrot!" cried Jenn as Dan pulled her back further into the rubble. He looked angry, but was also watching the small creatures that were emerging from the piles of debris around them. He started to fire at them causing a few to explode into rather messy piles of the black slime.  
  
"We've got to get out of here! We can't help him!" snapped Dan as he pulled on the girl forcefully.  
  
Carrot stared into his wife's smiling face as the darkness wrapped around him completely. Only small portions of his fingers and face were still visible.   
  
Her dark and triumphant smile faded as his eyes became angry suddenly. "No!"  
  
She stepped back away from him with a confused and hurt look on her face.  
  
"I won't! You're coming with me!" he cried as he raised his arm into the air.  
  
"No! It...can't be!" cried Mia as she raised her hands to shield her face.  
  
A flash of light formed over the man's head as a white power shined all around him, pushing the darkness away from his body forcefully. He stared forward and hefted the giant key that had appeared in his grip into an offensive stance. "Quit fooling around and come on!"  
  
"It's...too late for me," she replied with a sad looking smile. "I will await you, in the darkness. Your time will come soon enough. I do not think the darkness will consume you easily."  
  
"What?" he cried as he rushed forward as she sank into the vortex of darkness. "Nooo!"  
  
A giant fist blasted out of the center shielding her exit and Carrot was tossed into the air and on top of the rubble just above Jenn and Dan. He landed on a large section of floorboard, but the small rocks that were scattered across it slammed into his back and sides like hard punches. The wind was knocked out of him and he coughed violently. "Damn..."  
  
"Carrot!" cried Jenn as she climbed up to him. Dan followed after her, knocking one of the dark creatures aside with the butt of his gun. It wasn't hurt, but neither was he.   
  
"I think we've got bigger things to worry about," commented the man as he looked up at the creature that loomed over them now. Neither of them knew it, but Carrot knew what it was. It was the monster from his dream.  
  
Carrot staggered to his feet and pushed Jenn away gently. He held the key in front of him again and frowned as he glanced around.   
  
"What the hell are you gonna do? Unlock it to death?" grumbled Dan.  
  
"I don't see you shooting it," replied Carrot.  
  
"Wouldn't waste the bullets on something that big," replied the man angrily. "We should go."  
  
"Where?" asked Carrot calmly.  
  
Jenn screamed as she realized what the boy was talking about. She was on her hands and knees looking out over the edge of the rubble that had been their home. There was nothing beyond the edge but an endless void.  
  
"What's the hell?" said Dan as his eyes went wide.  
  
"Isn't it obvious? This thing eats worlds," replied Carrot calmly. He was looking up at the giant. "Get ready guys, this is really going to suck."  
  
"No kidding!" screamed Jenn angrily.  
  
Carrot screamed as he rushed forward with the key held over his head. He charged into the mass of smaller creatures that had formed around the thing's feet.   
  
Naturally, they kicked his ass rather soundly.  
  
He hacked down on top of one of the things. It was obviously hurt, but not killed, before he could spin into another attack three more slammed into his back.   
  
"What the hell is that idiot doing!" cried Dan as he stumbled down through the debris.   
  
"Getting himself killed!" snapped Jenn angrily. "Not that it matters much now..."  
  
"Guess you got a point. Ready to go down in a blaze of glory?" He replaced the spent clip in his weapon with a new one and cocked it.   
  
"Do we have a choice?"  
  
"Well, we could die quietly," he replied.  
  
"Stop talking and help me you assholes!" cried Carrot as he shook off a dog pile of the smaller creatures.  
  
Dan slipped and jarred his foot on a large brick. A small avalanche crumbled away sending him and Jenn tumbling into the crowd of tiny creatures along with a shower of medium sized rocks. The things scattered away as they landed, but a few were knocked around a bit.  
  
Carrot backed towards them with the key held in front of him. "So now what?" He hacked down and one of the creatures exploded into a shower of green balls. He blinked at this and looked up at the big one. "You've got to be kidding me."  
  
"What is it?" snapped Dan. He seemed somewhat distracted.   
  
"Those green things! Grab them quick!" Carrot spun around and sent two more of the small creatures reeling.   
  
The larger creature seemed to notice that his minions weren't doing so well. It arched its back and roared. A beam of light shot from the heart shaped hole in its torso and giant balls of energy began to separate from it. They moved through the air and towards the trio.   
  
"Damn," muttered Carrot as one of his strikes was deflected. He pressed his attack and jabbed the thing in the face with his key. It vanished and became more of the green balls.   
  
"What the hell are these things?" said Dan as he watched a small cut on his arm vanish as he came into contact with one of the green balls.   
  
"Don't worry about what they are, only what they do!" snapped Carrot as he backhanded one of the creatures that had jumped for him in the face. He shook his hand painfully for a moment afterwards.   
  
Jenn was standing between them helplessly. The two men had been able to keep her pretty well protected so far. She stepped back to avoid running into their backs as they moved closer to her and tripped. "Ouch!"   
  
Dan looked back and noticed her on her back. "Hey..."  
  
Carrot batted three more of the little things away. The larger one was growing irate with them rather quickly. It began to form a ball of power in its hands.  
  
"Shit! It's gonna make more of these little ones!" snapped Carrot as he recognized the attack from his dream.  
  
"What? How the hell do you know?" screamed Jenn from where she was sprawled across the ground.  
  
"Had a dream once," replied Carrot simply.  
  
"Hold them off for a sec," said Dan as he moved back next to Jenn.   
  
"Huh?" said the man as one of the creatures slammed into his face headfirst. He was sent sprawling into the crowd of shadows and became the focus of their attention.  
  
He pushed them away and spun the blade wildly around his body. They were forced back, but the giant decided it had collected enough energy and slammed its fist into the ground.   
  
"Son of a bitch!" screamed Carrot as he realized that he was sitting waist deep in the dark ooze. It didn't seem to stick to him, but the smaller creatures that were rising from it all around him were really starting to piss him off.  
  
"What the hell are you doing!?" cried Jenn as she slapped Dan in the back of his head. He was shoving rocks aside calmly, and ignoring Carrot's predicament. "He'll die!"  
  
"Nah, he can take a pretty good beating," replied Dan simply. "We both can."   
  
He stood up and Jenn stared at what was in his hands with wide eyes.   
  
"Oh you have got to be kidding!"  
  
"Hey Carrot," called Dan. "Move."  
  
The boy was struggling with one of the smaller creatures that had landed on his chest. He was pulling at the thing's antenna angrily while biting another on the foot. The key was gripped in his other hand and was being waved around wildly at the larger group in front of him. He froze as his eyes went wide quite suddenly.   
  
"Oh shit."  
  
Rolling aside he pushed himself to his feet and ran, ignoring the creatures as they bounded after him.  
  
Dan simply leveled his rocket launcher at the giant and grinned. "Good night."  
  
The explosion echoed across the void and the creature reeled back waving its arms wildly. A blue energy crackled through it as it started to fade, along with the smaller things.   
  
"Holy shit Dan! Do you realize what my wife would have done to you if she found out you had one of those in the building?"  
  
"It was my last shell anyway," replied the man as he shrugged.  
  
"Um guys?" said Jenn as she looked at them both.   
  
"Yeah?" asked Carrot as he staggered to his feet.  
  
"Now what?" she asked.  
  
"Well, I'm gonna go look for my wife," replied Carrot simply. He started to step towards the vortex, but stopped quite suddenly and dropped the key. It vanished in a flash of light before it even hit the ground. "No."  
  
Jenn stared at him for a moment in confusion. That was when she realized what he was looking at. The vortex was gone, and there was no sign of the hole, or his wife. "Carrot..." she whispered sympathetically.   
  
"Now what do we do?" grumbled Dan as he checked over his handgun again. He now had a shotgun strapped across his back along with a high powered rifle. He had also found his S.W.A.T jacket and badge in the debris.  
  
The dark orb overhead was still there. Carrot looked up at it and frowned. "I...don't know."  
  
"Do you guys feel something?" asked Jenn as she glanced around.  
  
"This place is getting smaller," said Dan as he noticed the edges were still flying up towards the orb.   
  
"Aw man," said Carrot as he looked up.   
  
That was when the wind picked up. It increased in force quite suddenly and they were forced to grab onto the protruding debris to remain on the ground. They screamed as the force pulled at them, then, one by one, their grip gave out.   
  
The trio sailed into the sky, sucked into the void.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
TBC...  
  
Author's notes! Wheee!  
  
Well, I wanted to do something a bit different than normal. I bought Kingdom Hearts, and realized at once that it was the ultimate SI set up.   
  
The fic will use the basic idea behind the game, the enemies are the same [except for the bosses and such]. What I didn't want to do was have the same story behind the hero characters. I didn't want to make somebody Riku, and somebody Kairi, and then make the hero Sora. I wanted a bit more difference than just personality. I don't recall the relationship between the heartless and the villains being explained very well, at least not in the first game. [If the ending is to be believed, there will be a sequel.]  
  
Anyway, this just takes the basic premise of KH and applies it to a completely new set of characters. Think of this as in the same Universe as KH, but a different set of worlds, far away from the ones Disney and Square covered. Well, pretty far away at any rate. ^_^;  
  
Here's a list of worlds that will be visited. Just because someone's world isn't there, doesn't mean that there won't be characters from the anime/manga there.   
  
Ranma 1/2: Nerima  
Urusai Yatsura  
Sailor Moon  
Bubble Gum Crisis  
The Slayers  
Tenchi Muyou  
Dragon Ball Z  
Street Fighter  
Fushugi Yuugi [For those who have played the game, Think 'Pooh']  
Evangelion  
  
This list has no particular order, and is by no means a final definitive list. ^_^ Each world will probably have it's own 'Chapter' and won't be released until the story from that world is finished. Towards the end, there will probably be a bit of world hopping and maybe some back tracking, but for now, one chapter = one world.   
  
For now, I go back to writing other things. Maybe I'll have something else out within a couple of days? I'd like to think so, but I'm not making promises. ^_^; 


	2. Anime Hearts 2

Anime Hearts  
  
Part 2  
  
A whole not so new world.  
  
+++++++++++++++++  
  
Carrot wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting where he was. For all he knew it could have been days. He'd just woken up and didn't quite have the strength to open his eyes. He felt his hand brush against his face and run across light stubble on his chin.  
  
"Ooooh, where am I?"   
  
His eyes slowly opened and focused on something. A blob of color faded into view slowly. It was the face of a young boy. Carrot wasn't expecting to wake up to such a scene and responded by screaming loudly and flailing his arms against the brick wall he was propped up against.  
  
Naturally, the child screamed as well. Another unexpected event happened and Carrot was not only surprised, but also put through a large amount of pain. A jet of flame shot out of the boy's mouth. He had but a spit second to realize that the child was floating about three feet off the ground before the flames hit.  
  
"YEOWCH!"  
  
"WAAAAAHHHHHHH!"  
  
"Jeezus kid!" Carrot flapped at his shirt desperately to put out the flames. His face was completely red and his hair was singed. His eyes rolled up into his head and he slumped down cold.  
  
The child sniffled and glared at him for a moment. "Meanie!"  
  
A new voice caught the child's attention and he looked up over his head. "Ten! What are you doing down here all alone?" His older cousin Lum floated into view and ignored the smoking body against the wall.  
  
The child floated down to the ground and started making circles in the ground with his toes. "Well, I was following...er, I mean looking for Ataru, and I figured a good place to find him would be this bathhouse."  
  
"Really?" said Lum as she looked confused for a moment.  
  
"Yeah, he's around back at the window. I asked him what he was looking for, but he told me I'd understand when I was older." Ten smiled sunnily at her.  
  
"R-really?" said the girl as she looked down at her cousin with barely controlled rage. Energy crackled around her as she slowly turned her glare towards the back of the building.  
  
"Yeah!" said Ten cheerfully. He turned away and rubbed his hands together impishly. "That'll teach him for hogging the view!"  
  
Ten was quite surprised when a hand reached up and grabbed him in the face. "I heard that." The child found himself staring an angry looking Carrot in the face from between the man's fingers. "In another situation, I might sympathize with you, but I didn't appreciate what you did to me a minute ago."  
  
"You let my cousin go right now!" cried Lum defensively as she seemed to forget about Ataru for a moment.  
  
The man stood up; he was much taller than her and dressed in street clothes. He didn't look very happy and he simply held the child by his face. "No thanks, I don't like getting burned in the face twice in one day. It's a rather unpleasant way to wake up."  
  
The girl stepped back and spread her feet. "I'm warning you..."  
  
"This little runt was working with your boyfriend so he could see some naked flesh too. He seems a little young to be such a pervert."  
  
Lum relaxed ever so slightly as she turned her eyes towards her cousin. "What? Don't be stupid."  
  
"He was looking right at me when he was congratulating himself on sending you after him after this Ataru hogged the view. He's probably as dirty minded as your boyfriend, but he's cute, so no one suspects."  
  
Ten growled angrily from under the boy's grip. It wasn't painful, but firm enough to keep him from opening his mouth.  
  
Carrot dipped his arm back slightly and tossed the child into her arms. The boy tumbled back and shot flame out of his mouth as soon as he was free. The man was unharmed and his own jet sent him splashing into a puddle at Lum's feet.   
  
"That wasn't very nice!" growled Lum.  
  
"It's his own fault, if he hadn't shot his mouth off he'd have landed in your arms safely." He turned away from her with a smirk on his face and paused as he walked away for a moment. "Don't look at me that way. I know you would have caught him."  
  
The girl didn't seem very pleased with this at all.  
  
+++++++++++++++++  
  
It had been about a half-hour since the incident in the alley. Carrot was sitting on a park bench staring at the ground in silence. He'd been there for almost twenty minutes. It seemed odd to him that he was still in Tomboiki. He had a giant key sitting across his lap and no one gave him a second glance.  
  
Being sucked out of your apartment by a huge black vortex and watching most of your planet go along for the ride wasn't something to be taken lightly. It is expected that someone in that situation that wasn't dead would have no idea where the hell they were.   
  
Therein lied the problem in this case. Carrot knew exactly where he was and it scared the living shit out of him. He had seen people walking by that he recognized, but he'd never met any of these people in his life.  
  
He simply watched the people's feet go by in front of him. He didn't move or try to speak to any of them, although he could understand them all. It was odd considering not all of them were using Japanese or English.  
  
"What the hell happened? What were those things? What does this thing have to do with it?" He held up the key in front of his face and peered at it. "Where did everyone else go?" He finally rose to his feet. "Dan and Jenn were right with me...and Mia..." He felt his fist clench at his side at the thought. "What the hell happened to her?"  
  
He had a lot to think about, but he would have to do it on the move. He realized that his friends could easily be dead, or flung off into a different world. Still, they were with him when the end came, and maybe he'd find them here. "It'd be nice to not be alone." He chuckled at the thought as he stepped into the crowd of pedestrians on the sidewalk. His feet felt like lead as he moved down the street. He didn't want to move now; he simply wanted to sit somewhere dark and waste for a while. Everything he had or cared about was missing, and he had every intention of getting whatever he could back.   
  
He glanced around at a few of the buildings and frowned. Familiar setting or not, he had no idea how to get around the new world. He didn't have any money, and he was basically on the streets. He had a funny feeling things would work out for him for now at least. There were forces at work he couldn't begin to comprehend just yet.  
  
He opened his hand from around the key and it fell to the ground, vanishing in a flash of light before it hit the pavement.   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"Where are we?" grumbled Jenn as she leaned against the counter at the small restaurant she and her companion had traveled too.  
  
Dan had a deep frown on his face as he stared daggers into the back wall. "Japan, I think."  
  
"Well thank you Captain Obvious! What happened to our house!?"  
  
"Dunno."  
  
"Great. I had a date, do you know how long it's been since I've gotten laid?"  
  
"Don't care," replied Dan just as calmly.  
  
"What about Carrot?"  
  
"He's probably around somewhere," replied Dan calmly. "We were with him until we blacked out."  
  
Jenn tossed her hair as she spun away from him in frustration. They had woken up together in the middle of a park nearby about seven hours ago. "Great. So what can we do?"  
  
Dan downed his glass and poured himself another drink from the flask on the counter in front of him. "Look for Carrot."  
  
"We don't even know if he's even here!" snapped Jenn angrily.   
  
Dan snorted and downed the next shot. "Won't know until we look." He tossed a few American dollars onto the counter in front of the bartender. The man bowed and took the money. "Besides, he can take care of himself for a while. He's got that key thing remember?"  
  
"How did you know they'd take that here?" grumbled Jenn as she gave up on the topic and nodded her head at his wallet.  
  
"There's a sign on the window outside. Why do you think I picked this place?" replied the boy as he put on his shades and stood up. "Probably get a lot of military in a place like this. I think there's a base nearby."  
  
"Why?" said Jenn as she waited for him to stroll up to the exit with her.  
  
"Well, I just saw a T-74 tank go by on the street. It's what the Japanese Self Defense Forces use, but there's probably American soldiers around too."  
  
"This is so weird," grumbled Jenn as she walked outside and witnessed a boy of about sixteen run screaming by as a girl floated along behind him while electrocuting him.  
  
Dan casually lit a cigarette and turned his head to follow the action that everyone else ignored. "Hmm. I could be wrong."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Nuthin, it wouldn't mean anything to ya anyway."  
  
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" growled the angry looking girl as she crossed her arms over her chest.   
  
"Why do you always have to look for hidden meanings? I swear you act like we're dating sometimes."  
  
"Just come on," grumbled the girl angrily as she pulled on his arm and dragged him down the sidewalk.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
In the shadows of the bar, a tall figure sat in a booth with a drink resting on the table in front of him. He pushed his round amber colored glasses up his nose and frowned deeply. "That man, has a weapon." He spoke to no one under his breath as he watched the two strangers at the bar. The woman had fast reflexes, but she couldn't fight and wasn't armed.   
  
The man was talking with the woman next to them, both of them were probably off-worlders. Then he heard something that caught his attention.   
  
"Carrot? Key? It couldn't be..."  
  
He didn't move as the pair walked out of the restaurant and simply sat staring at his drink as they ice melted in his glass. "Could it be?"  
  
He growled under his breath and did not move from his seat. He pushed his glasses up his nose and simply frowned into his drink.   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Carrot had no clue where he was and sighed. It was some sort of business quarter, people bustled around and shopped while he simply stood dumbly in the middle looking around. "Where the hell am I?"  
  
He walked along the sidewalk and frowned as he pushed through the shoppers, he was searching for a stretch of road with a bit more room to maneuver. Finally, after several minutes of navigating the crowded street he found himself on a considerably more vacant stretch of road.  
  
It was eerily empty in fact.  
  
His eyes searched the area but there seemed to be no life at all. "Weird." The sound of footsteps caught his attention and he faced the newcomer.  
  
It was a man in his early twenties by the look of him. He was a little out of shape and was waving to him as he rushed up. The man had a skinny build to him and was wearing a suit. He looked quite geeky and had a pair of thick glasses over his eyes.  
  
Carrot simply stood dumbly as the man bent down at his knees and panted. "Can I help you?"  
  
The man looked up at him with a deep frown on his face. "What are you doing? You can't leave the safe zone!"  
  
"Safe zone?" muttered the confused looking youth.  
  
"What?" said the man as he stood up and stared at the boy. "Are you new here?"  
  
This caught the boy by surprise slightly. "Yeah. What of it?"  
  
"So, more people from another world?" said the man as he hung his head.  
  
Carrot was perplexed. "Um, this has happened before?"  
  
"Well, aliens were normal here before, so why not other dimensions?"  
  
It was an odd statement, and Carrot was surprised how easily he shrugged it off. "I see your point."  
  
"I hope I'm not trampling any hope you might have, but there are rarely more than a handful of survivors. You probably won't find anyone you know. It can be difficult to adjust too here at first and we'll do what we can to help you. This is something of a National crisis you see."  
  
Carrot nodded grimly. "Well, that was blunt enough. Thanks."  
  
The man didn't look quite sure what to say to that.  
  
"Well, I guess I've got a few questions you could probably answer. You seem to have more idea what's going on here than I do."  
  
"Your questions can be answered when we register you. I've got to take you to the town hall and we can see if there are any other survivors."  
  
"Humor me anyway. We'll talk on the way. I've got quite a few questions to ask."  
  
"All right, I'll tell you what I can, please walk with me. I've got to report this to my supervisor."  
  
"Why is this area patrolled like this?" asked Carrot as he walked with the man.  
  
"Mostly to keep people like you from wandering into the outer area these days. No one ventures very far from this area these days. It's becoming dangerous, we're running out of food, soon we'll have to start rationing things. We aren't quite to that level yet though. These constant drop ins aren't helping either. People just show up in the middle of town, we usually find them sleeping somewhere odd or just wandering around town trying to figure out where they are. The refugees can't be blamed because most of them don't have much memory of exactly how they ended up here."  
  
Carrot nodded, his situation seemed to mirror that explanation. "Where are we coming from?"  
  
"Other worlds, other dimensions, all sorts of places. It's an epidemic. I hope someone finds a way to stop it soon or this could be the end for us."  
  
This wasn't exactly good news. Carrot found himself stopping and looking around.   
  
"Hey, don't worry. We got some of the best minds in the universe here. I hear there's even talk of evacuating everyone off the planet."  
  
"Yeah. I know. That's why you lasted this long right?"  
  
The man seemed to cheer up. "That's right! That's the kind of positive thinking you need to have!"  
  
"Yeah, positive. What are those things?"  
  
"Oh? Your world was caught unaware?" the man gasped as a sad look flooded his face.  
  
"Stop being such a wuss. Just tell me."  
  
"They are called the Heartless."  
  
Carrot snorted. "Heartless?"  
  
"Yes. They devour entire worlds."  
  
The man looked down at his Japanese companion and frowned. "I know."  
  
"Oh. I see."  
  
"What do we know about them?"  
  
"Not very much. They seem to take something from inside of people. We aren't quite sure what it is though. Even the strongest and bravest of men can't seem to defend against it. We can fight them, but their numbers are overwhelming. I can't even bring myself to mention the larger ones, or the medium sized ones, or the really small ones, or..."  
  
Carrot sighed as the man frightened himself to near petrifaction. "Okay, jeez."  
  
The man calmed down and seemed to compose himself. "We patrol the borders. The Heartless haven't attacked us yet. Most of what we do now is keep people like you from wandering too deep into the area they control. We've had to seal off our sewage system. Needless to say things are not as they used to be here anymore. There are many dangerous places in Tomboiki."  
  
The man merely nodded as he continued to walk forward with his key in his grip. He'd decided that until he learned his way around a bit more he'd be safer with it already out and ready. Especially since they were still in the patrolled area. Rather than take him back through the populated area of town, the man was simply walking them back down his original route. Carrot noted that he was armed with little more than a flashlight. Either he was very skilled, or very stupid. He decided it was the latter, as he now recognized the man as one of Ataru's teachers.  
  
"Is there anything else you'd like to know? We're nearing my station check in. I'll hand you over to one of the managers there and he will be able to answer much more than I can."  
  
"Are survivors usually standing close together on their own worlds before they get sucked here?"  
  
"Most of the time yes. Some worlds will send two or three groups. It's growing a little crowded, but there's still enough living space to go around so far. Many of the people who used to live here were working in town when they came."  
  
"That's morbidly interesting I suppose."  
  
"Oh dear. I'm terribly sorry," muttered the man apologetically.   
  
"Don't worry about it. Where do these things come from?"  
  
"No one is sure, but often survivors speak of some kind of door. We haven't seen any doors or found any evidence of one in Tomboiki."  
  
"That's because you're looking in the wrong place."  
  
The man halted and turned to look at him. "What?"  
  
"These things didn't come from here. The door would have to be out there, in the middle of that mess, the place where it all started. I'm betting that's somewhere on Japan though. I'm not sure why though."  
  
"Well, Japan gets most of her resources from intergalactic trade these days. We don't have much to do with the other countries. There's talk of sending aid at the American Senate I hear though. Mostly they're just getting ready for it to spread from here so they can nuke it."  
  
"Great. I've landed in the happiest place on Earth."  
  
"It is depressing isn't it?" asked the man through his tears.   
  
"Yeah, whatever. Look, I'm pretty sure there's at least two more from my world here. We got sucked up together and were pretty close last I recall. I hope I can count on you to find them for me, because if they wander into that place without me, I'm holding you personally responsible."  
  
The man looked up and swallowed at the much larger American. "Um? But..."  
  
"I guess you should go and find them for me huh?" said the man cheerfully as he pat his companion on the shoulder. He turned his head and smiled. "Oh look. We're here!"   
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"Your face is ominous!"  
  
"And you're bald. So?" Dan took a deep drag from his cigarette and blew it into the bald midget's face.  
  
"What the hell are you doing? Trying to pick a fight with an old guy?" snapped Jenn as she slapped him across the back of his head.  
  
"Ah, such a fine girl to show proper respect," said the monk as he bowed deeply.  
  
The girl glared at him. "I'm not sure how to take that."  
  
"Your future is very chaotic my friend. I just thought I'd warn you. It is my duty after all."  
  
"Yeah. I already knew that anyway," replied Dan with a small shrug.  
  
"Everyone seems ominous these days it seems," grumbled the old man as he walked away. "You are different though." He stopped and did not turn around. "I'm not quite sure why though. A most interesting thing to meditate on."  
  
Dan snorted and turned away. "Come on. We're not finished looking."  
  
The girl frowned at him as she followed. "You're such a dick sometimes. I swear."  
  
"Not often enough," grumbled Dan.  
  
"Stop being a pervert and look for him," snapped the girl as she picked up her pace.  
  
"Yeah, right," said the man as she shoved his hands in his pockets and continued to puff on his cigarette.  
  
+++++++++++++++++  
  
Carrot smiled as he walked up to the manager with his now quivering guide. "Hello." He patted the man on his back and winked at him. "You've got to learn to relax."  
  
The man smiled weakly and nodded.  
  
A large man in a yellow hardhat walked up to him with a clipboard in his hand. "Hello. Welcome to Tomboiki."  
  
Carrot merely smiled as the man bowed. "Yeah. Thanks."  
  
"There's a briefing you'll need to take. Then I can get you downtown for registration."  
  
"How many others are there so far?"  
  
"Only a few thousand, it's starting to get tight though."  
  
The man snorted as he looked Carrot up and down. He seemed like the serious type and had a rather cold glare about him. He was one to be watched. He made a small mark on his clipboard and noted the large key in the man's hand. "What's that?"  
  
"A weapon that can defeat the Heartless," replied Carrot calmly. "That's what I'm told anyway." Some of what had happened in his dream was starting to make more sense and that bothered him on more than one level.  
  
"Another one of those huh?" grumbled the man as he frowned at the young punk in front of him. "Those legendary family heirlooms or whatever can be pretty strong and take out quite a few of em, but we ain't found one yet that can defeat them outright."  
  
"I suppose not," replied Carrot as he looked down at the blade. This place appeared to be going down the same road as his own, but much more slowly. He'd heard nothing about the attack when it had happened, and his world was gone in moments. Still, he intended to go down fighting.  
  
"You'd best watch yourself kid. That place is dangerous, and I can see by the look in your eyes you intend to go. Just make sure you know what you're doing."  
  
"Have you heard any reports about a woman with them?"  
  
"A woman, with them?" muttered the man in confusion. His eyes went wide as he stared at the boy. "You..."  
  
"I didn't stutter."  
  
The man frowned at this and shook his head. "No. Nothing like that."  
  
Carrot merely nodded and followed after the man as he started walking. "Good."  
  
"Any more questions? I can always spot the damned troublemakers. They ask the most questions."  
  
Carrot's serious face was gone in an instant. "What! Don't say that! I'm a nice guy really!"  
  
The man merely shook his head and continued walking.   
  
++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"Where are we?" muttered Jenn as she looked around her environment with a perplexed frown.   
  
"Tomboiki."  
  
"You've been here before?" said the girl as she looked at him dumbly.  
  
"No. This is the town hall. It says it right here." He pointed at a nearby plaque.  
  
"I can't read that!"  
  
"Neither can I," replied Dan with a small shrug. He put out his cigarette and crushed it with the toe of his boot into the pavement.  
  
"Hey! You can't litter like that!" cried an incredibly excitable youth nearby as he pointed at the sidewalk in what appeared to be surprised shock. His group of friends looked equally surprised and gathered around his back.  
  
Dan casually backhanded the boy in his face and continued his conversation as if nothing happened. "Kinda strange isn't it."  
  
Jenn was staring at the plaque dumbly. "Is that all you have to say? I can read Japanese! How could this possibly get any weirder?" Jenn stomped her foot on the ground in anger and paused suddenly at the sight that went on behind Dan's back.  
  
A boy of about sixteen was rushing down the street. A girl followed him on some sort of flying motorcycle with a machine gun, a girl who shot electricity out of her body and flew without outside help, and a young boy riding atop the turret of a tank. The boy was waving a sword over his head as rows of what appeared to be soldiers marched along behind him.  
  
"AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!" cried the girl as she clutched her head.  
  
"Well, ya shouldn't have said that, you were askin for it."  
  
Jenn glared at Dan for a moment and pulled his shades off of his face. "You don't look surprised. Why is that?"  
  
"Pardon?"  
  
"We just watched the weirdest parade either of us has ever seen, and you look as calm as you always do."  
  
"It's nothing to get upset about."   
  
"What do you mean it's nothing to get upset about!?"  
  
"I guess I just don't rattle easy."  
  
"No. You know what's going on here, or more than you're telling me."  
  
Dan took his shades back from her and put them over his eyes. "What if I am? Maybe I ain't sure just yet."  
  
Jenn grabbed his ear and twisted it hard. Dan's cool exterior was broken in an instant as he twisted into pain. "Dan. I'm only going to ask you this once before I rip this off. Where are we? Tell me everything you know, and I might decide to not kick you in the balls while you're like this."  
  
The man fell flat onto his rear as his feet finally gave out. "Ouch! You coulda just asked!"  
  
"I did. Start talking."  
  
The boy sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "We're in a manga."  
  
"Please tell me you did not just say that," said Jenn as she crossed her arms and frowned at him. Dan stumbled away from her and clutched at his ear as he gave her the evil eye as best he could. She didn't seem impressed and tapped her heel impatiently.  
  
"Near as I can tell, that's what happened. Our world got sucked up, but we got stuck here when it got indigestion or something. I'm guessing that key Carrot had has something to do with this. He's my friend and all, I'd be looking for him anyway, but we really need to find him."  
  
"I've noticed people looking towards the edge of town in a daze," said Jenn as she hung her head slightly.  
  
"I know, something's going on here. I think I know what it is."  
  
"Not again."  
  
"'fraid so."  
  
"I just hope this doesn't become a pattern."  
  
"Hello, you seem to be lost," said a cheerful voice from beside them.  
  
The pair turned and blinked in surprise.  
  
"Hello," said the woman who bowed too them deeply. She had a cheerful smile on her face as she greeted them. "Are you new here?" She was a fairly large young woman with long brown hair. She had an almost mannish build about her.  
  
"Um, hi," muttered Dan as he found himself basically eye to eye with the woman. "I guess you could say we're a bit lost."  
  
"Oh! Have you been registered yet?" asked the woman cheerfully. "I can tell you're not from this world. You need to go inside and get registered. Otherwise we won't be able to write you into the rationing. It's very important."  
  
Dan merely nodded and didn't reply. Jenn seemed somewhat perplexed by all of this and merely stared at the woman for a long time.  
  
"Other world?" grumbled the girl.  
  
"I figured it was something like that," muttered Dan. He seemed relieved to have some sort of explanation for what had happened too him.  
  
Jenn ignored this and turned towards the woman. "Excuse me, but maybe you can help us out a bit more?"  
  
"I guess I could. What do you need?" asked the woman. She had already started to focus her attention elsewhere.  
  
"What are those things?"  
  
"They're called the Heartless. No one is really sure what they are exactly. Only that they steal people's hearts."  
  
Dan arched his eyebrow a little at this. "Hearts?"  
  
"Yes, well, most of us believe that anyway. It's not official or anything."  
  
The man merely nodded and turned towards the town hall. "We're looking for someone else. A guy who probably came here with us."  
  
"There usually aren't more than a few survivors I'm afraid," said the woman with a sad expression on her face.  
  
"I'm sure he's still alive. He could be carrying a giant key."  
  
The woman stared at him for a moment and looked thoughtful. "Well, I'm not sure about that. I guess I could keep an eye open, but I don't think there's been anyone like that around here for a while."  
  
"Well, we had to try," grumbled Jenn as she hung her head a little.  
  
"Come on, we should go see what this registering thing is all about."  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Carrot walked out of the registration building looking more than a little miffed. He'd had no idea that the process included a series of shots. He was probably going to feel pretty shitty for a while. It had at least given him a chance to wash off and get something for the minor burn on his face and arms.   
  
He paused and glanced around with the key slung over his shoulder. He still didn't like his situation and he hadn't really learned any more than the teacher had told him on the way to his supervisor. He didn't need to pay the cab fare for the ride either. No one had any idea what the Heartless were, where they came from, or why they were here.  
  
A popular notion around the area was that they were some kind of intergalactic parasite.   
  
It was still early and he had no where to go really. He decided to sit on the steps and wait for a while. Maybe Jenn and Dan would probably end up here sooner or later, it seemed like a good place to hang around for a few days.   
  
It was about then that he realized that he had no money. He hung his head and sighed. "Man. I gotta find a job here? This sucks."  
  
Something caught his attention a short distance away. It was unusual to see such a sight in a place like Tomboiki. It was Kenshin Himura.  
  
He found himself arching his eyebrow as he watched the man pay for an Okonomiyaki at a small Yattai. He was using small yellow and blue crystals as money. Carrot recalled he had absorbed quite a few of those.  
  
This was probably the most surreal moment he'd ever experience he noted mentally. He sighed and stood up. He walked towards the Yattai and nodded at the vendor. Fortunately for his somewhat off balance sanity there wasn't a small cross-dressing girl bustling about around the cart. The man running it also looked a little young to be a father yet.   
  
"What can I get for you?"  
  
"You take those crystals as money?"  
  
"Yeah. You must be new here. Killing the heartless is a big deal around here naturally. So we let the people who hunt them use these things as money. They seem to fly all over the place when you kill one of the big ones I hear. It didn't take long before they got into circulation so much that everyone around here accepts them from anyone."  
  
"Hunters?"  
  
"It's sort of like bounty hunting I suppose. A lot of the off-worlders have become quite rich I hear."  
  
Carrot could swear he heard a cash register go off somewhere. He looked down at the key in his hand and frowned. "I'm still not very good with this thing." Still, it was pretty much in his plan at some point to try and find a way to go after these things. They had something of his and he wanted it back.   
  
He opened his palm and noted that there were a few of the crystals in his palm. "Weird."  
  
"Yeah, it is kinda. You know how many you got?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm not sure how. I'm not gonna tell you how rich I am though."  
  
The man chuckled. "They seem to know how many of them you need. It's hard to cheat people with these going around. There's talk of using it as currency if we manage to get rid of the damned things. Damn convenient if ya ask me."  
  
"It's unsettling."  
  
"I guess," replied the man. "You want the special?"  
  
Carrot shrugged. "Sure. I guess I can blow a bit on lunch." He placed the crystals on the counter and sat down while the vendor started cooking.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
"Ouch," grumbled Dan as he walked out with Jenn at his side.  
  
"Shots? I don't believe this place," agreed the girl as she glanced around the courtyard.  
  
"I wonder if Carrot has experienced the welcome yet?"  
  
The girl sighed and hung her head. "I don't know, we've been wandering around quite a bit. We may have already missed him."  
  
"If that's true, he'll probably hang around here."  
  
"Think he's looking for us?"  
  
"Of course." Dan put on his shades and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket.  
  
"I guess we should hang around and wait."  
  
The woman who had greeted them appeared behind them and opened the lid of a trashcan. "Hello Mr. Vash. What are you doing in there?"  
  
Dan and Jenn both turned to face the scene with somewhat surprised looks on their faces. They could see a mass of spiky blonde hair poking out of the top of the can. It was also making shushing noises.  
  
"What did you find?" asked Dan as he walked over to her side.  
  
The man inside the can didn't look particularly happy with his situation.  
  
"Who's this?" asked Jenn as she moved up beside Dan and peered into the trashcan.  
  
"This is Mr. Vash. I'm not sure why he's hiding in the trash though. He looked quite serious when I found him. That's a little unusual."  
  
"What is this?! A peepshow?" cried the man in the can. He shifted into a shy looking pose and started making circles with his finger on the inside of his hiding spot. "I'm feeling pretty vulnerable you know."  
  
"You were at the bar," said Dan.  
  
"Oh. So that's where you've been all day Mr. Vash!" cried the woman as she smiled brightly.   
  
A young, and much smaller woman with short cut black hair walked out of the town hall and glared down at him. "This guy again? What have I told you about talking to him Millie?"  
  
"But, Mr. Vash is my friend..." said the larger woman in confusion.   
  
The other woman sighed. "Fine. I'll bet he's just been goofing off again. We don't have time for this now. We've got lots of work to do. We may not work for the insurance company anymore, but we've still got to make a living where we can!"  
  
Millie nodded and sighed. "I guess you're right."  
  
"But, I haven't been goofing off. I was following suspicious strangers. Look, that one even has a gun."  
  
Everyone turned to see Vash's arm pointing at Dan.  
  
"Are you kidding me?" grumbled Meryl.  
  
"Naw, he's right. We are suspicious, and I've got a gun," replied Dan as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "I would have followed us too."  
  
"See!" cried the Trashcan.  
  
Meryl kicked the trashcan over sending Vash spilling out onto the pavement with quite a few papers and wrappers. "Get out of there! Come on Millie, we've got work to do." She turned her nose up into the air and walked away from them.  
  
"What a bitch," commented Dan.  
  
"I dunno, I kind of liked her," replied Jenn.   
  
Vash stood up and started picking papers off the ground and putting them into the trash after he'd put it back up. He noticed the two strangers were ignoring them in favor of scanning the crowd.  
  
They all paused at a voice from a short distance away. "Hey!"  
  
"Carrot?" said Jenn as she whipped her head around.  
  
The man had a huge grin on his face as he greeted them with a wave of his arm. He had an Okonomiyaki in one hand and the key in the other. He was waving it over his head cheerfully.  
  
Vash narrowed his eyes at this and remained silent.  
  
Jenn dashed up to the boy and nearly tackled him as she wrapped her arms around his neck.  
  
Dan casually strolled down the stairs that lead up to the doors of the town hall towards his friend. "Yo!"  
  
Carrot was busy trying to get away from Jenn. "Hey! Cut that out! I got food in my hand!"  
  
"Oh my god! You're all right!" She seemed ecstatic.   
  
"Yeah. I'm glad you two made it too," replied the boy a little wistfully.  
  
The girl covered her mouth and took in a quick breath. "Oh...I'm sorry..."  
  
"Don't be, I'm not, not yet anyway," he turned towards the street and sighed. "So, you guys get the shots yet?"  
  
"Unfortunately," grumbled Dan.   
  
"What are we going to do?" muttered Jenn as she sat down. "Now that we've found you, it just hit me. We're all alone here."  
  
"It's not so bad, I've seen quite a few interesting people so far," replied Carrot as he grinned at her for a moment.   
  
"No kidding," agreed Dan.  
  
"Why do I get the feeling I'm missing out on something here?" muttered Jenn.  
  
"Mostly because you only watch Sailor Moon and Mecha Anime," replied Carrot. "Haven't seen anyone like that around here yet."  
  
"Heartless probably have a hell of a time with them," replied Dan.  
  
"Maybe, maybe not. I've heard talk around here, it doesn't seem to matter how strong you are. They go after something you really can't defend the way I hear it."  
  
Dan nodded and looked around. "These people are still here, so they can be fought off."  
  
"For how long though?" muttered Carrot as he sat down to brood for a moment. "We need to find a way to stop them."  
  
Dan arched his eyebrow and coughed. "We?"  
  
Carrot looked down at the blade. "You can stay here if you want. I'm going."  
  
Dan snorted and crossed his arms. "Like I'd let you do something so stupid on your own."  
  
"Wait a minute! You're leaving me?" cried Jenn.  
  
"No, you're coming with us." Carrot looked at her and frowned deeply.  
  
"What?! No way!"  
  
"I can't leave you here alone Jenn. If Dan was staying with you I might not mind so much, but the truth is we don't have a choice. I'm betting that somewhere outside this safe zone is a door. Just like the one that opened on our world."  
  
"What?" muttered Jenn in confusion.  
  
"Mia went through that door, and maybe this one goes to the same place."  
  
"You'll be killed!" cried the girl.  
  
"We'll die if we stay here. Even if it doesn't go to her, maybe we can find a way off this world and onto another one. This place is nearly gone, I don't think there's any aide coming from other countries, because they aren't there anymore."  
  
"You're smarter than you look."  
  
Carrot looked up and saw the sidewalk in front of them had cleared. A small wind kicked up dust on the empty pavement in front of the man who had spoken. His red coat fluttered dramatically in the wind as he simply stared the man in front of him down from the barrel of his gun.   
  
"I guess I am," replied Carrot as a smirk formed on his face.  
  
"I'm gonna need that key," said Vash.  
  
"What for?" asked Carrot as he stood up. Dan was standing calmly and ignoring the standoff it seemed.   
  
"What are you doing?! Help him!" snapped Jenn.  
  
Vash flashed a glare up at them for a split second.  
  
Dan didn't move. "He doesn't need help."  
  
The girl's eyes went wide.   
  
Carrot stood up and stretched his back. "Put that thing away. You won't kill me Vash the Stampede. It's not in you."  
  
The man gasped. "So, you've heard of me. Surely you must know my reputation."  
  
"Yeah, an incredibly accident prone hippie, who wouldn't hurt a fly, because he doesn't like pain."  
  
The man's arm dropped like limp spaghetti. "Darn."  
  
"What would you want with this anyway?" asked Carrot as he held the blade up.  
  
"It's important, I need it to stop the Heartless. Give it too me, it will only get you hurt."  
  
"This world is already gone. No one has realized it yet though."  
  
"You're right. This place is all that's left. I was awake when I fell, I saw the empty world. The aliens of this world are also keeping silent. In a month a fleet will arrive to evacuate the survivors."  
  
Carrot nodded calmly. "What do you know about this blade? You seem awfully well informed to even know about it at all. You seem to know more than I do."  
  
"Then you should give it too me, then I can use it too..."  
  
"You're only getting this key from me when you pry it from my cold dead hands. I lost someone, and I'm going to get her back. This key and the Heartless are all I have to go on."  
  
"If you lost someone to the Heartless, you can't get them back." Vash frowned as he turned his back on Carrot. "They will hunt you down. They are drawn to that key's power."  
  
Dan snorted. "He does know an awful lot."  
  
Vash's face was quite serious when he turned to face them. "We studied the Heartless on my world. Some old friends of mine lived above the rest of the world. They thought they were safe."  
  
Jenn looked completely confused. "Wait a minute! What do you mean studied them?"  
  
"We observed them for a while. Trying to find weaknesses that I could pass along to the population. We learned quite a bit, most importantly something about a Keyblade.   
  
Carrot stared at his weapon for a moment. "Doesn't look like it has much of an edge too it."  
  
"It was created to defeat the Heartless. There are several spread out across the Universe. It can close the doors and lock the Heartless away from a world. They fear it's power, and so they will hunt the one who carries it. I'm offering to set you free."  
  
Carrot chuckled and tossed the man the key.  
  
Dan and Jenn both gasped as they witnessed this.  
  
Vash grabbed it out of the air. "Th..." It vanished from his hand and appeared in Carrot's waiting palm.  
  
"As you can see, I don't have much of a choice about this either."  
  
Vash merely nodded. "I see. Damn."  
  
"Yeah. Bugs me too," replied Carrot with a small shrug. "I've got my own interest in this."  
  
"I guess we'll have to leave the safe zone together then," said Vash calmly.  
  
Carrot blinked at this. "Huh?"  
  
"It seems I can't save this world myself no matter how hard I try. I'll just have to help you."  
  
"Only if you promise you'll kill any Heartless we come across. You'll just be dead weight otherwise."  
  
"Yeah. I know," replied Vash. "Those things have no life in them. I don't think they're really alive. I've got no problems shooting them."  
  
"When should we leave?" asked Dan.  
  
"I'm going to need a few days," said Carrot as he walked by Vash looking every bit as serious. "There are some things I need to take care of."  
  
"It's hard at first," said Vash as he nodded his head.  
  
"What's hard?" asked Jenn.  
  
Carrot turned to smile at her for a moment. "You'll figure it out soon enough. Both of you will I think."  
  
"I'll see you later," replied Vash.  
  
Carrot shrugged his shoulders. "Come have a drink with us. I need one about now."  
  
Vash blinked in surprise and pointed at himself. "Huh?"  
  
"We're going to be working together for now, I guess we should get to know each other."  
  
+++++++++++++++++  
  
Four hours later...  
  
"Waaaaaahhhhh! Mommy! Daddy!" Jenn was in tears as she hung her head over the bar. She was wailing quite loudly and everyone in the bar ignored her. Dan was merely brooding silently beside her. He seemed to be staring off into space with a glass of whisky in his hand.   
  
Carrot sighed as he clumsily pulled one of the bottles that scattered the table and floor around him and Vash. "Didn't expect her to be this loud."  
  
"I lost a lot of friends that day," said Vash as tears ran down his face. He now had a necktie tied across his forehead.  
  
"So did I," replied Carrot somberly.   
  
"Yer bringing me down," grumbled Vash.  
  
"I'm here to mourn," replied Carrot.  
  
"Oh. Thash okay then."  
  
"Vash, I want to go through that door."  
  
The man sprayed alcohol across the table and sat upright. "Are you crazy!!?"  
  
"Maybe," replied Carrot. "I have to find someone. Something happened to them, and I don't think she was taken like the others. She seemed to join them. It was strange..."  
  
Vash tried his best he really did. His face turned green and he quickly stood up from the table and rushed to the bathroom.  
  
Carrot sighed and rubbed at his temples. "I'm thinking too hard for right now. It's giving me a headache." He stood up a little shakily and staggered towards the door.  
  
"Hey. Where you goin?" asked Dan as he broke his dazed stare for a moment.  
  
"Out for some air," replied Carrot as he staggered outside. "I'm not going far."  
  
"No kidding," said Dan as he turned his attention away from his friend and went back to his own thoughts.  
  
Jenn was sniffling loudly by this point. She rubbed her eyes and looked at Dan. It was hard to focus and she could feel how puffy they were as she rubbed under her nose with her wrist.  
  
Dan picked up a napkin off the bar and handed it too her.   
  
"Thanks, Carrot's worrying me. He's not acting normal."  
  
Dan simply nodded. "He'll get over it soon. He's just got a lot of pent up anger right now. I'll beat it out of him tomorrow."  
  
"Anger?" muttered Jenn. "I guess he would be mad at them."  
  
"And himself, I think he's starting to think this might be his fault."  
  
"What? That's crazy!" snapped Jenn as she slammed her napkin on the bar.  
  
"Is it? Where did that key come from? Vash told us they were looking for it. Maybe our world wouldn't have been so high on the list if he didn't have it."  
  
Jenn simply stared at him for a moment, unsure of what to say. "Still. That thing picked him didn't it?"  
  
"Maybe it did, maybe not. He was having weird dreams before this started remember?"  
  
"Even if he did, he couldn't have known."  
  
"Carrot will figure it out soon enough. Let him work it out for himself."  
  
The girl nodded and looked towards the door.  
  
Vash sat down next to them and glanced around. "Where's Carrot?"  
  
"He stepped outside," replied Dan. "He'll be fine on his own for now."  
  
Vash simply nodded, then his head hit the bar as he passed out in his seat.  
  
++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Carrot leaned against the brick wall next to the window of the bar. It was dark out now, stars glistened in the sky above as he puffed on his cigarette and simply stared up at them. "What the hell happened to me?" He knew he was depressed and drunk and it showed in his current train of thought. "Damn. What the hell can I do? I almost died the last time." He hadn't been very successful in fighting the Heartless, and he had no reason to think he had improved any.   
  
Still, he had every intention of facing it head-on. To him, he didn't have an option. He looked at the key and frowned. "I've got no choice do I? Even if they hadn't taken her, I still wouldn't."  
  
He looked up at the night sky again and watched as a single star flickered and faded from sight in a fraction of a second. He stood upright and balanced himself by putting his hand on the wall. "What the?" He shook his head, he was just drunk.  
  
With a heavy sigh he turned back towards the entrance to the bar and walked inside. The door shut behind him as he walked inside to finish his drinking. He had every intention of having a hangover in the morning, and the only way to be sure was to pass out.  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++  
  
Sigh. One chapter, one world. What was I thinking? _ At any rate, Tomboiki will last a little longer than expected. There will be much more character interaction in the future of course. Lum and her friends will probably play a more prominent role in the next part.   
  
Next Time: Journey into Darkness. 


End file.
